Overview

AFTER FOUR HARROWING YEARS ON THE WESTERN Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day?s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby?s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

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This Book

Overview

AFTER FOUR HARROWING YEARS ON THE WESTERN Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

What People Are Saying

“An extraordinary and heart-rending book about good people, tragic decisions and the beauty found in each of them.”—Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief

“M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans is a beautiful novel about isolation and courage in the face of enormous loss. It gets into your heart stealthily, until you stop hoping the characters will make different choices and find you can only watch, transfixed, as every conceivable choice becomes an impossible one. I couldn’t look away from the page and then I couldn’t see it, through tears. It’s a stunning debut.”—Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

“M.L. Stedman, a spectacularly sure storyteller, swept me to a remote island nearly a century ago, where a lighthouse keeper and his wife make a choice that shatters many lives, including their own. This is a novel in which justice for one character means another’s tragic loss, and we care desperately for both. Reading The Light Between Oceans is a total-immersion experience, extraordinarily moving.”—Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane and Untold Story

"Irresistible...seductive...a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page."—Sara Nelson, O, the Oprah magazine

“Haunting...Stedman draws the reader into her emotionally complex story right from the beginning, with lush descriptions of this savage and beautiful landscape, and vivid characters with whom we can readily empathize. Hers is a stunning and memorable debut.”—Booklist, starred review

“[Stedman sets] the stage beautifully to allow for a heart-wrenching moral dilemma to play out... Most impressive is the subtle yet profound maturation of Isabel and Tom as characters.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The miraculous arrival of a child in the life of a barren couple delivers profound love but also the seeds of destruction. Moral dilemmas don’t come more exquisite than the one around which Australian novelist Stedman constructs her debut.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“This heartbreaking debut from M L Stedman is a gem of a book that you'll have trouble putting down”—Good Housekeeping

“This fine, suspenseful debut explores desperation, morality, and loss, and considers the damaging ways in which we store our private sorrows, and the consequences of such terrible secrets.”—Martha Stewart Whole Living

“As time passes the harder the decision becomes to undo and the more towering is its impact. This is the story of its terrible consequences. But it is also a description of the extraordinary, sustaining power of a marriage to bind two people together in love, through the most emotionally harrowing circumstances.”—Victoria Moore, The Daily Mail

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

If Tom Sherbourne had wanted tranquility, he seemed to have found the perfect place on Australia's Janus Rock. As lighthouse keeper on this remote island, he and his young wife Isabel had found a home where he could free himself from the painful memories of four hellish years on World War I's western front. As he healed, there was one new cause of great frustration though; after his wife's two miscarriages and a stillbirth, their dreams of a family appeared to have dissolved. That changed, however, when a small boat washed ashore carrying a corpse and a living baby. With that shipwreck discovery, decisions must be made that will radically change several lives. An artfully written debut novel not soon to be forgotten; now in trade paperback and NOOK Book.

Karen Brooks

“Sublimely written, poetic in its intensity and frailty…This is a simply beautiful story that deserves the praise and wide audience it’s receiving. A stunning debut from a new voice that I can’t wait to hear again.”

People

“Lyrical…Stedman’s debut signals a career certain to deliver future treasures.”

From the Publisher

“As time passes the harder the decision becomes to undo and the more towering is its impact. This is the story of its terrible consequences. But it is also a description of the extraordinary, sustaining power of a marriage to bind two people together in love, through the most emotionally harrowing circumstances.”—Victoria Moore, The Daily Mail

From the Publisher

“A love story that is both persuasive and tender…”—Elizabeth Buchan, The Sunday Times (UK)

“What an extraordinary book this is. Tom, traumatised on the western front, takes a job as lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, 100 miles off the Australian coast between the Indian and Southern oceans, where he hopes that the vast surrounding emptiness will bring him peace. When after three years and as many miscarriages his wife hears a baby's cry and discovers a dead man and a baby in a washed up dinghy, she feels her prayers have been answered. The ensuing tragedy is as inevitable as Hardy at his most doom-laden. And as unforgettable.”—Sue Arnold, Guardian

People

“Lyrical…Stedman’s debut signals a career certain to deliver future treasures.”

The Boston Globe
- Tova Beiser

“A beautifully delineated tale of love and loss, right and wrong, and what we will do for the happiness of those most dear.”

USA Today
- Elysa Gardner

“Elegantly rendered…heart-wrenching…the relationship between Tom and Isabel, in particular, is beautifully drawn.”

The New Yorker

Told with the authoritative simplicity of a fable…Stedman’s intricate descriptions of the craggy Australian coastline and her easy mastery of an old-time provincial vernacular are engrossing. As the couple at the lighthouse are drawn into and increasingly tragic set of consequences, these remote, strange lives are rendered immediate and familiar.”

Karen Brooks

“Sublimely written, poetic in its intensity and frailty…This is a simply beautiful story that deserves the praise and wide audience it’s receiving. A stunning debut from a new voice that I can’t wait to hear again.”

Publishers Weekly

In Stedman’s deftly crafted debut, Tom Sherbourne, seeking constancy after the horrors of WWI, takes a lighthouse keeper’s post on an Australian island, and calls for Isabel, a young woman he met on his travels, to join him there as his wife. In peaceful isolation, their love grows. But four years on the island and several miscarriages bring Isabel’s seemingly boundless spirit to the brink, and leave Tom feeling helpless until a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a living child. Isabel convinces herself—and Tom—that the baby is a gift from God. After two years of maternal bliss for Isabel and alternating waves of joy and guilt for Tom, the family, back on the mainland, is confronted with the mother of their child, very much alive. Stedman grounds what could be a far-fetched premise, setting the stage beautifully to allow for a heart-wrenching moral dilemma to play out, making evident that “Right and wrong can be like bloody snakes: so tangled up that you can’t tell which is which until you’ve shot ’em both, and then it’s too late.” Most impressive is the subtle yet profound maturation of Isabel and Tom as characters. Agent: Susan Armstrong, Conville & Walsh. (Aug.)

The Boston Globe
- Tova Beiser

“A beautifully delineated tale of love and loss, right and wrong, and what we will do for the happiness of those most dear.”

USA Today
- Elysa Gardner

“Elegantly rendered…heart-wrenching…the relationship between Tom and Isabel, in particular, is beautifully drawn.”

The New Yorker

Told with the authoritative simplicity of a fable…Stedman’s intricate descriptions of the craggy Australian coastline and her easy mastery of an old-time provincial vernacular are engrossing. As the couple at the lighthouse are drawn into and increasingly tragic set of consequences, these remote, strange lives are rendered immediate and familiar.”

People

“Lyrical…Stedman’s debut signals a career certain to deliver future treasures.”

From the Publisher

“An extraordinary and heart-rending book about good people, tragic decisions and the beauty found in each of them.”—Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief

“M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans is a beautiful novel about isolation and courage in the face of enormous loss. It gets into your heart stealthily, until you stop hoping the characters will make different choices and find you can only watch, transfixed, as every conceivable choice becomes an impossible one. I couldn’t look away from the page and then I couldn’t see it, through tears. It’s a stunning debut.”—Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

“M.L. Stedman, a spectacularly sure storyteller, swept me to a remote island nearly a century ago, where a lighthouse keeper and his wife make a choice that shatters many lives, including their own. This is a novel in which justice for one character means another’s tragic loss, and we care desperately for both. Reading The Light Between Oceans is a total-immersion experience, extraordinarily moving.”—Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane and Untold Story

"Irresistible...seductive...a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page."—Sara Nelson, O, the Oprah magazine

“Haunting...Stedman draws the reader into her emotionally complex story right from the beginning, with lush descriptions of this savage and beautiful landscape, and vivid characters with whom we can readily empathize. Hers is a stunning and memorable debut.”—Booklist, starred review

“[Stedman sets] the stage beautifully to allow for a heart-wrenching moral dilemma to play out... Most impressive is the subtle yet profound maturation of Isabel and Tom as characters.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The miraculous arrival of a child in the life of a barren couple delivers profound love but also the seeds of destruction. Moral dilemmas don’t come more exquisite than the one around which Australian novelist Stedman constructs her debut.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“This heartbreaking debut from M L Stedman is a gem of a book that you'll have trouble putting down”—Good Housekeeping

“This fine, suspenseful debut explores desperation, morality, and loss, and considers the damaging ways in which we store our private sorrows, and the consequences of such terrible secrets.”—Martha Stewart Whole Living

“As time passes the harder the decision becomes to undo and the more towering is its impact. This is the story of its terrible consequences. But it is also a description of the extraordinary, sustaining power of a marriage to bind two people together in love, through the most emotionally harrowing circumstances.”—Victoria Moore, The Daily Mail

“A love story that is both persuasive and tender…”—Elizabeth Buchan, The Sunday Times (UK)

“What an extraordinary book this is. Tom, traumatised on the western front, takes a job as lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, 100 miles off the Australian coast between the Indian and Southern oceans, where he hopes that the vast surrounding emptiness will bring him peace. When after three years and as many miscarriages his wife hears a baby's cry and discovers a dead man and a baby in a washed up dinghy, she feels her prayers have been answered. The ensuing tragedy is as inevitable as Hardy at his most doom-laden. And as unforgettable.”—Sue Arnold, Guardian

Meet the Author

Read an Excerpt

Thousands of miles away on the west coast, Janus Rock was the furthest place on the continent from Tom’s childhood home in Sydney. But Janus Light was the last sign of Australia he had seen as his troopship steamed for Egypt in 1915. The smell of the eucalypts had wafted for miles offshore from Albany, and when the scent faded away he was suddenly sick at the loss of something he didn’t know he could miss. Then, hours later, true and steady, the light, with its five-second flash, came into view—his homeland’s furthest reach—and its memory stayed with him through the years of hell that followed, like a farewell kiss. When, in June 1920, he got news of an urgent vacancy going on Janus, it was as though the light there were calling to him.

Teetering on the edge of the continental shelf, Janus was not a popular posting. Though its Grade One hardship rating meant a slightly higher salary, the old hands said it wasn’t worth the money, which was meager all the same. The keeper Tom replaced on Janus was Trimble Docherty, who had caused a stir by reporting that his wife was signaling to passing ships by stringing up messages in the colored flags of the International Code. This was unsatisfactory to the authorities for two reasons: first, because the Deputy Director of Lighthouses had some years previously forbidden signaling by flags on Janus, as vessels put themselves at risk by sailing close enough to decipher them; and secondly, because the wife in question was recently deceased.

Considerable correspondence on the subject was generated in triplicate between Fremantle and Melbourne, with the Deputy Director in Fremantle putting the case for Docherty and his years of excellent service, to a Head Office concerned strictly with efficiency and cost and obeying the rules. A compromise was reached by which a temporary keeper would be engaged while Docherty was given six months’ medical leave.

“We wouldn’t normally send a single man to Janus—it’s pretty remote and a wife and family can be a great practical help, not just a comfort,” the District Officer had said to Tom. “But seeing it’s only temporary… You’ll leave for Partageuse in two days,” he said, and signed him up for six months.

There wasn’t much to organize. No one to farewell. Two days later, Tom walked up the gangplank of the boat, armed with a kit bag and not much else. The SS Prometheus worked its way along the southern shores of Australia, stopping at various ports on its run between Sydney and Perth. The few cabins reserved for first-class passengers were on the upper deck, toward the bow. In third class, Tom shared a cabin with an elderly sailor. “Been making this trip for fifty years—they wouldn’t have the cheek to ask me to pay. Bad luck, you know,” the man had said cheerfully, then returned his attention to the large bottle of over-proof rum that kept him occupied. To escape the alcohol fumes, Tom took to walking the deck during the day. Of an evening there’d usually be a card game belowdecks.

You could still tell at a glance who’d been over there and who’d sat the war out at home. You could smell it on a man. Each tended to keep to his own kind. Being in the bowels of the vessel brought back memories of the troopships that took them first to the Middle East, and later to France. Within moments of arriving on board, they’d deduced, almost by an animal sense, who was an officer, who was lower ranks; where they’d been.

Just like on the troopships, the focus was on finding a bit of sport to liven up the journey. The game settled on was familiar enough: first one to score a souvenir off a first-class passenger was the winner. Not just any souvenir, though. The designated article was a pair of ladies’ drawers. “Prize money’s doubled if she’s wearing them at the time.”

The ringleader, a man by the name of McGowan, with a mustache, and fingers yellowed from his Woodbines, said he’d been chatting to one of the stewards about the passenger list: the choice was limited. There were ten cabins in all. A lawyer and his wife—best give them a wide berth; some elderly couples, a pair of old spinsters (promising), but best of all, some toff’s daughter traveling on her own.

“I reckon we can climb up the side and in through her window,” he announced. “Who’s with me?”

The danger of the enterprise didn’t surprise Tom. He’d heard dozens of such tales since he got back. Men who’d taken to risking their lives on a whim—treating the boom gates at level crossings as a gallop jump; swimming into rips to see if they could get out. So many men who had dodged death over there now seemed addicted to its lure. Still, this lot were free agents now. Probably just full of talk.

The following night, when the nightmares were worse than usual, Tom decided to escape them by walking the decks. It was two a.m. He was free to wander wherever he wanted at that hour, so he paced methodically, watching the moonlight leave its wake on the water. He climbed to the upper deck, gripping the stair rail to counter the gentle rolling, and stood a moment at the top, taking in the freshness of the breeze and the steadiness of the stars that showered the night.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a glimmer come on in one of the cabins. Even first-class passengers had trouble sleeping sometimes, he mused. Then, some sixth sense awoke in him—that familiar, indefinable instinct for trouble. He moved silently toward the cabin, and looked in through the window.

In the dim light, he saw a woman flat against the wall, pinned there even though the man before her wasn’t touching her. He was an inch away from her face, with a leer Tom had seen too often. He recognized the man from belowdecks, and remembered the prize. Bloody idiots. He tried the door, and it opened.

“Leave her alone,” he said as he stepped into the cabin. He spoke calmly, but left no room for debate.

The man spun around to see who it was, and grinned when he recognized Tom. “Christ! Thought you were a steward! You can give me a hand, I was just—”

“I said leave her alone! Clear out. Now.”

“But I haven’t finished. I was just going to make her day.” He reeked of drink and stale tobacco.

Tom put a hand on his shoulder, with a grip so hard that the man cried out. He was a good six inches shorter than Tom, but tried to take a swing at him all the same. Tom seized his wrist and twisted it. “Name and rank!”

“McKenzie. Private. 3277.” The unrequested serial number followed like a reflex.

“Private, you’ll apologize to this young lady and you’ll get back to your bunk and you won’t show your face on deck until we berth, you understand me?”

“Now, out!” Tom said, and the man, deflated by sudden sobriety, shuffled from the cabin.

“You all right?” Tom asked the woman.

“I—I think so.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“He didn’t…”—she was saying it to herself as much as to him—“he didn’t actually touch me.”

He took in the woman’s face—her gray eyes seemed calmer now. Her dark hair was loose, in waves down to her arms, and her fists still gathered her nightgown to her neck. Tom reached for her dressing gown from a hook on the wall and draped it over her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Must have got an awful fright. I’m afraid some of us aren’t used to civilized company these days.”

She didn’t speak.

“You won’t get any more trouble from him.” He righted a chair that had been overturned in the encounter. “Up to you whether you report him, Miss. I’d say he’s not the full quid now.”

Her eyes asked a question.

“Being over there changes a man. Right and wrong don’t look so different any more to some.” He turned to go, but put his head back through the doorway. “You’ve got every right to have him up on charges if you want. But I reckon he’s probably got enough troubles. Like I said—up to you,” and he disappeared through the door.

Interviews & Essays

A Conversation with M.L. Stedman, Author of The Light Between OceansInterview by Tess Taylor

The opening sequence of your book captures the solitary beauty of living on a lighthouse and looking back to land. When I read the sequences of months passing and Tom, the lightkeeper, waiting for news, I thought of To The Lighthouse, a book where, paradoxically, we never meet the lightkeeper everyone keeps setting out to see. Lighthouses play a special place in the literary imagination. What drew you to this one?

When I write I just let a picture or a phrase float into awareness, and follow where it leads. For this story, a lighthouse was the very first thing that came to me. I closed my eyes, and there it was: solid and mysterious and the instigating image of a tale about which at that point I knew nothing at all. I was curious to find out more, so I kept writing. Of course the people I discovered at the lighthouse - Tom and Isabel - drew me into their lives, and the dilemma they face as they try to stay true to their love, yet true to themselves and their own sense of right and wrong.
To answer the other part of your question - yes, lighthouses seem to attract writers, perhaps because they automatically betoken the drama of journey and of risk. Wherever you see a lighthouse, there's something at stake, which is great territory for fiction.
As I worked on the book, I discovered that they appeal not only to writers, but to just about everyone. When you mention lighthouses, people generally get a gleam in their eye and lean in a little. They're an archetype that gives people freedom to imagine, and freedom to explore the human condition stripped down to its very essence. They represent the ultimate unfair yet heroic struggle: man's fight against the forces of nature, with its hidden hazards and infinite power. And they're a fulcrum: between safety and danger, light and dark, journey and stasis, communication and isolation, on which our imagination can - has to - pivot, because they're not just one or the other.

Some of your writing about lighthouses shows a great deal of research into their intricacies, like the way that they use small amounts of light to illuminate great distances; or the way that they shine over the edge of the earth without actually lighting up what's most directly below them. Did you do a great deal of technical research into lighthouses? While writing, did you go on special lighthouse expeditions?

Yes, and yes. I found the technical research so fascinating that it became addictive: lighthouses bring together so many aspects of science and technology, as well as maritime and social history. At their core, they're instruments of commerce - tools that made shipping sufficiently safe for voyages to be commercially viable. My research traversed everything from the history of glass-making to the physics of light to the early engineering of automation, and the development of communication methods from signaling with flags to Morse code.
I read some of the old catalogues and instruction books of Chance Brothers (lighthouse manufacturers) in the British Library. In the Australian National Archives, I trawled the lightkeepers' correspondence files as well as the meticulously kept logbooks from the era. It gave me shivers to think that the leather-bound volumes in my hands were written by men long-dead, who could never have imagined how touched by their words I would be almost a century later. And yes, I did go climbing up lighthouses in the south-west of Western Australia, near where the novel is set. Standing on the gallery of the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin with the wind howling around me gave me a visceral sense of setting.

In fact, a great deal of your novel is about separations and long distances- people, who, for one reason or another have been wrenched from one another. I just asked about the technical work you did in researching all this. I also wonder: Did the way that lighthouses work seem to be a kind of central or touchstone metaphor for the way you depict human relationships?

Yes, I found it to be an incredibly rich metaphor for what the characters experience, especially Tom and Isabel. For a start, there's light and shadow, especially in the Jungian sense of the shadow side of human nature, and questions about what the characters suppress or disown. Importantly, lighthouses don't move. They are dependable, efficient and concerned with others' safety. I see Tom as the lighthouse and Isabel as the mercury that allows him to move whilst staying anchored. Looking at a lighthouse at night, we can only see a light - we can't tell what's going on inside it or even see the structure that supports it. We're oblivious to its inner nature. And the lighthouse cannot illuminate the space closest to it: its light is only for others. The one person Tom can't save is himself.
Like most lighthouses, the Janus light rotates, to give it a unique 'character' by going dark then returning a few seconds later. You can only identify it by looking at the whole pattern, not just the light or the dark in isolation. In life, too, it's important to take people as a whole, not just focus on flaws or moments of weakness. There's something, too, about having faith, in the moments it's obscured, that the light will come back, and Tom tries to keep faith that he will see Isabel again, even when she's lost in darkness in the latter part of the book.
I also see a parallel between the lantern lens and the characters' actions. The light is a tiny flame that is magnified and reaches far beyond what the lightkeeper can see. Similarly, Tom and Isabel's initial decision about the baby is the act of a moment that goes on to have consequences beyond their imagining. Sometimes, events turn our insignificant deeds into grave turning points in life.

This novel is set against the backdrop of the aftermath World War One, and understanding the losses that everyone touched by that war has suffered—which is to say everyone—is critical. The war touches each character differently, but they each reflect facets of the greater loss. When did you know that this story would be set at that time? Did the lighthouse and the war emerge together in your mind? How did you find yourself imagining them?

When the lighthouse first turned up, I knew that I was seeing something a long time ago, but I didn't know exactly when. Once I saw Tom, the lightkeeper, I knew that he had opted for life 'on the Lights' to get away from trauma, and that that trauma was the Great War. I only found out later, speaking to an archivist in the Australian Archives, that this happened frequently: many returned soldiers sought the solitude that life as a lightkeeper offered: they no longer knew how to function in civilization. The more I read the stories of Australian WWI soldiers, the more I understood the sort of man who volunteered for war, and the impact it had on him.

You write very movingly about the desire to parent and of an impossible set of choices faced by two sets of parents and the losses each sustains. Do you feel that your characters are served justice in the end?

I don't want to give much away about how the story ends, so I'll just say that the question of what constitutes justice is central to the book, particularly because following the rules and following the heart will each cause dreadful suffering. I hope I've done justice to my characters, in that I've tried to let readers see why each of them does what they do, and how the world looks to them. I think that to understand another's life is to find some measure of compassion for them.

Here at Barnes & Noble, we're always on the lookout for great emerging writers. Is there anyone you're reading these days who moves you? Would you give us a few recommendations for this summer's reading?

Perhaps any writer a reader hasn't encountered before qualifies as an 'emerging writer' for that reader. So thinking of books that move me and that I'd recommend, here's a random selection. Gilead, by Marilyn Robinson, is a beautiful study of late love and human frailty. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton's novella, is a masterpiece in miniature, which packs so much longing and anguish and guilt into such a small space. And of course, To Kill a Mockingbird is always a life-affirming read. On the short fiction side, a recent debut I loved was Hot Kitchen Snow, a collection by English writer Susannah Rickards, filled with poignant, beautifully written stories.

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Tom Sherbourne finds peace as a light house keeper on a seclude

Tom Sherbourne finds peace as a light house keeper on a secluded island after the brutality he witnessed in war. The routine and distance helps him sort out his emotions and brings him peace. He couldn&rsquo;t imagine sharing his life with anyone until he marries Isabel and she makes their rock feel like home. Their secluded life has its share of happiness but heartbreak soon sets in after several miscarriages making the seclusion feel suffocating for Isabel. When a boat washes up in their little world carrying a dead man and a living baby, life seems to take a wonderful turn. Isabel has never been happier but Tom is plagued with unease and when a trip back to the mainland brings troubling facts to light he yearns to do what is just.An emotional rollercoaster doesn&rsquo;t begin to describe what it felt like to read this. With each page I questioned what I had felt while reading the previous page. The characters are amazingly real with such humanity that I wanted to talk to them or yell at them. There are a couple of characters that I hated to love and one that I loved to hate so that made it very hard to decide where I stood with each individual story line. I have no complaints about this one. I am already recommending it and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

218 out of 245 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 12, 2012

Amazing!

Great book, beautifully written. In a time where Fifty Shades of Grey and other such rubbish get rave reviews it's nice to read a book worthy of the accolades it has received. I am looking forward to more books from this author.

146 out of 163 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 2, 2012

Loved it...couldn't put it down. The story is heartbreakingly be

Loved it...couldn't put it down. The story is heartbreakingly beautiful and while the ending acknowledges the pain, it also offers hope. This book is in my top 10 of all time. I'll be thinking about the story for quite a while.

101 out of 117 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 7, 2012

Must read!

I have never before felt the desire to rate or reccomend a book. This time however, it was different. I was trappped in this beautifully well written story from page one. Fell in love with the characters, suffered with them, wept for them. Read the book in three days and it definetly goes to my "top five" list.

76 out of 79 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 2, 2012

I read this book in a day, interesting and compelling story, fai

I read this book in a day, interesting and compelling story, fair character development.

59 out of 108 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 2, 2012

Fairly easy read, but worth it!

I had a hard time putting it down. Characters were pretty well developed and the author does a decent job of taking you to a different place in time. I'd love to visit Janus for a month or so.... just the idea of it being just you and the wind and sea; like you are part of something, another world entirely. One can dream.

48 out of 59 people found this review helpful.

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CharlieKay

Posted August 12, 2012

After the handful of e-mails I received promoting this book, I d

After the handful of e-mails I received promoting this book, I decided to pick it up. All I can say is: WOW! What a truly beautiful tale of tragic love. I couldn't put the book down. I found myself completely in love with the characters, their story, and felt my heart ache for them. I cried my way through the last chapter. I don't even want to pick up another book because I'm still so wrapped up in Tom and Isabel's lives. Definitely one of my Top 10 books!

45 out of 47 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 5, 2012

I loved this book. Read it in one day. The characters were wel

I loved this book. Read it in one day. The characters were well developed and very real. I had such mixed emotions about the two women in the story who loved the little girl. My heart went out to both of them. They were all very coureageous people, the women and the men. In the end, each of them lost something. A good book for book club. Lots of discussions.

35 out of 40 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 4, 2012

Excellent

The word pictures are wonderful. The story line unforgettable A must read.

28 out of 33 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 4, 2012

Between the Oceans

One of the most well crafted books I have read in a while. Rich language and a wonderful, emotiinal story.

28 out of 33 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 3, 2012

Haunting Novel

This is a novel I think I may have to read again--I can't quite get it out of my mind. Stedman is a lovely writer; for such a complex story and set of characters this is a rather slim book, for which I'm grateful. I'm sick of overblown novels that needed to be cut at least in half.

"Oceans" is a grown up, beautifully written story with complex characters. It shows the too often painful consequences of getting what we so desperately want and choices made in the name of love.

***The language is lyrical, almost poetic at times. This is not a fast-paced tale for the first 120 pages or so; indeed, at times it tends to drag a bit. BUT when Lucy is discovered and her origins revealed--this becomes taunt and heartbreaking.

***While it's impossible not to feel for Tom, Isabel is a harder character to embrace and it wasn't until the last 100 pages that I really did--then the parallels bewteen Isabel and Hannah, their plights and precarious emotional states, converge beautifully. These are two women at odds yet constantly shifting places in the same heartbreaking dance.

***The only element, besides the momentary places of slowness is Lucy's eventual situation--[SPOILERISH]--her terror and refusal to accept Hannah is incredibly vivid, yet her final acceptance of Hannah seems to be wrapped up too vaguely and quickly after the more detailed prior events. That did not ring true or balanced for me.

But this is a novel that if you stay with it--gives you lovely rewards, a story where the characters' ultimate motives can be discussed for a long time. i think it's worth the read and discussion afterward.

22 out of 27 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 14, 2012

Anonymous

This powerful, compelling, beautifull, well written story will capture your attention from the first page down to the last sentence of this book. The characters of Tom and Isabel are so strong, I became immersed in their lives. You will feel the unbelievable love and unbreakable bond between a mother and her child. The authors description of the island was so vivid that I almost felt the wind in my face and force of the ferocious storms that swept through the island. I felt myself standing inside the lighthouse, taking in the sights and smells, and looking out into the immense ocean. Life for Tom and Isabel on the island seemed idylic, when in reality, it was not. It was harsh and lonely, and they had only themselves to rely upon. So when the small boat washed ashore with the live infant and the dead body, to Isabel it was a sign from God. Afer suffering through three miscarriages, the moment that she held the baby in her arms, she was never going to let go. Even after Tom's refusal of accepting the baby and trying to make her understand the damage they might be inflicting upon themselves, Isabel refused to listen to reason. I think she might have been on the verge of a complete mental breakdown had it not been for the baby. It was too much for a woman to bear. Miscarriages, complete isolation for months at a time, and the obligations, and responsibilities, that Tom's job demanded all contributed to Isabel's state of mind. The life altering decision to keep their silence regarding the dead man and deciding to keep the baby and claim it as their own, had terrible consequences, one they never could have imagined, it almost destroyed them. But after reading through all that sorrow, there was a happy ending, with a pleasant surprise. I had time to reflect on who to place the blame for that fateful decision, was it Tom or Isabel. I would place it on a combination of things, but leaning towards Tom.Their isolation was a big factor, after all who would know and see what they did on that island.

This is a great book, by a highly talented author, a must read.

18 out of 21 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 4, 2012

Fantastic Book!!

This is a definite must read. I loved the characters and the storyline. One of the best books I have read in a while!!

18 out of 20 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 14, 2012

Dull

This book sounded intriguing in the blurb. However, there was entirely too much boring lighthouse data and not nearly enough character development. I actually skipped ahead in the book to see if it improved. Nope. I just found out that not much had happened to make me either like or care about the characters. Too bad because the idea had promise. Not a book i would loan to a friend. Will end up at the used bookstore

13 out of 30 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 14, 2012

This is one fantastic book. If I could give it more stars I wou

This is one fantastic book. If I could give it more stars I would. For a debut novel, It makes you happy and sad all at the same time. I was completely shocked by the ending though. I only hope this author has more books in store for us. Read this one, you will surely love it as I did.

13 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 13, 2012

Great book.

Excellent read.

13 out of 17 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 14, 2012

Five stars plus!!

What a great story!! Will archive to read it again. Will recommend to all my reading friends.

12 out of 14 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 6, 2012

This book was excellent. I felt empathy for all the characters.

This book was excellent. I felt empathy for all the characters. They were very well developed. His writing is beautifully lyrical but not heavy at all. I will definitely read his next book!

10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 30, 2014

I Also Recommend:

You won't find any easy answers in The Light Between Oceans, but

You won't find any easy answers in The Light Between Oceans, but you will find a beautifully written and sensitively told story about people who make mistakes and learn to live with the aftermath. I highly recommend this book. It's impossible to read this book and not become totally drawn in by the characters: the withdrawn and haunted Tom, the bold and laughing Isabel, and all the people who call Partageuse home. It was also impossible for me to read this book and not to choose sides. One of the major images of the book is this meeting of opposites. Janus Rock stands where the warm Indian and cold Antarctic Oceans meet. It's where the taciturn Tom and the ebullient Isabel live. It's where a brilliant light flashes continuously throughout the dark nights. It's where a bad decision is made for all the right reasons. The town of Partageuse continues the image. Tom Sherbourne has miraculously survived World War I and finds himself in a small town in western Australia seeking work as a lighthouse keeper. A winner of medals of honor, he is no stranger to violence and killing. As he gets his first temporary job, he also meets Isabel, who becomes the love of his life. They begin a romance, marry and move to the isolated lighthouse, Janus, where they hope to start a family. This is a good old-fashioned novel: plot driven with plenty of twists, well-drawn characters, poetic descriptions and good use of symbolism. Although I have never visited Western Australia, I could envision the places and people depicted in the book.

8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 13, 2012

Loved this book!

This was a great read. I could see it being made into a great movie.

8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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